Putting PEACE Together at Parkview School

A  year-long initiative- the PEACE global education program at Parkview Center School in Roseville- had all the pieces fall into place. 

That’s when the school held an assembly Thursday morning  to unveil a permanent PEACE (Peace, Equity, Action, Community and Environment) mosaic mural near the cafeteria.

Parkview school won a grant to bring in local artists David Aichinger and Jessica Turtle of Twin Cities-based David Aichinger Tile Company to create the mural. 

Each Parkview student helped create a piece of the mosaic, altogether some 190 individual pieces. 

Aichinger and Turtle worked together with the students for two days to bring the mural to completion. 

“The entire project took a month from start to finish.  I had a great time working with the kids,” Aichinger said. 

The mosaic mural was the highlight of Parkview’s  school participation in the PEACE  program for the  2010-11 academic  year.

Parkview chose five weeks throughout the year to focus on each letter in the word PEACE (Peace, Equity, Action, Community and Environment), according to school officials.  Students in kindergarten through eighth grade participated in various projects with each grade responsible for creating specific activities such as Pinwheels for Peace on International Peace Day, Equity Self Portraits, Pennies for Peace International service-learning program, a food drive, a health fair and tree planting.

“Parkview values their beliefs in teaching peace and empowering each other to understand the importance of working for peace in our lives and throughout the world,” Principal Kristen Smith Olson said in the assembly introduction. 

Prior to the mural unveiling; parents, students and faculty packed into the Parkview gymnasium to enjoy a program of student entertainment that included a flag ceremony performed by the Girl Scouts, the Parkview Jazz Band, an Irish dance and singing groups from various grades.